Art Brushes Care Tips To
Save You Time & Money
Like many tools of the trade, giving your art brushes care and loving attention will repay you many times over.
I know... You've bought your new art brushes and can't wait to get going! Hold on a second! Don't dive in just yet.
Properly looked after, your brushes will give you years of loyal and quality service.
However, you can just as easily lose these goods friends through ignorance or haste, costing you time, frustration and above all, money to replace.
There's some helpful art brushes care hints you need to be aware of to get the most from your brushes and to keep them at their best for years to come. Read on!
Art Brushes Care - Even Before You Begin Painting
Often, the round, soft-haired brushes come with a short length of protective clear plastic tube over the bristle end.
I put these straight in my 'Someday-I'll-Need-That' box. It's actually numerous boxes all over the house that my darling, ever-patient wife Pam manages to keep tidy for me :-)
But as for the tubes...? I find that every time I try to put them back over the brush head, no matter how careful I am, I manage to miss a few hairs. These get folded back between the tube and the ferrule and stubbornly never go back into shape.
Art Brushes Care turns into art brushes careless!
Whatever I do, having been folded, they stay stuck out at right angles. I've even taken a pair of scissors and cut the odd hairs back to the ferrule, but this ruins the shape of the brush and seems to encourage other hairs to spread out.
If you want to carry on using these plastic tubes with the larger art brushes, make sure the bristles are damp and stuck together and use a careful twisting motion as you put the tube back on.
In my opinion, there are several better alternatives to giving your art brushes care and loving protection, especially in transit and we'll have a look at these in a moment...
Most brush heads come with a gum arabic or similar soluble preservative on them to keep them rigid and minimise damage between the factory and the art store.
Firstly, rinse this off in water, then dry the hairs by shaking them or pressing gently on a paper towel. If it'sone of the soft haired or synthetic watercolor brushesdraw the hairs to a nice point or chisel edge.
The bristle or nylon filaments in oil paint brushesand the expanding ranges of acrylic paint brushes are a bit sturdier. These can be safely dried by wrapping a cloth or tissue round the bristles and drawing it gently away from the ferrule. This sucks up excess moisture.
Art Brushes Care During Painting Sessions
When painting, try not to let paint cover the ferrule. This is a sure fire way to start the bristles spreading as the paint dries inside and you can't get at it. Once this happens, especially with acrylics, you've probably lost your point or chisel edge for good! :-(
Look at this picture. Two flat art brushes the same size and both about 5 years old. One has been cleaned properly immediately after every paint session, following the art brushes care tips on this page. The other one has been allowed to 'clean itself' by dumping in a jar of turps. Which is which ?
When you're working with different art brushes during a painting session, lay the one(s) you're not using down flat in a tray or somewhere where it won't roll away.
If it's a watercolor brush, rinse it in water to get the excess paint off first. If it's an oil brush do likewise with your turps or low odor thinners.
In fact, I always have three containers of either low odor thinners or water on the go, depending on the painting medium I'm using. One is used for swilling out brushes as I change color, which quickly gets very dirty.
The other is kept to thin the paint as necessary and helps keep the colors on the brush - and my picture - vibrant and clean.
As the session progresses, I dispose of the dirty thinners or water and use the previous 'clean' supply as my 'dirty' mixer, and then use my third jar for a clean fresh supply.
Although I throw the dirty water away, I have a large coffee tin into which I pour the dirty thinners. I leave it to settle for a few days and then pour the relatively clean liquid off the top of the sludge back into my jar.
Though strictly not part of an art brushes care regime, it's all part of the same process and saves me time, money and minimises waste.
Now for a couple of absolute no-no's in the art brushes care world...
First, if you're using acrylic paint, don't ever let the brush dry out with paint on it during the session.
Acrylic paint on oil and acrylic art brushes can go rock hard in about twenty minutes and will ruin your brush.
To avoid this, have a shallow tray of water handy - a foil or cheap plastic food dish is ideal - and lay the brush flat with just the bristles in the water. This will prevent it drying out with paint residue on it.
Even more importantly, whilst on the subject of switching between brushes during a painting session ... NEVER, EVER, EVER stand any of your art brushes bristle-end down in a jar of turps or water!!!
And don't ever store them dry like that in a container either!! This is absolutely golden-rule-number-one of art brushes care tips !
In no time at all, you'll end up with a hockey stick instead of a brush and you might as well use it for that as for all the good it'll be for painting from then on!
The odds are that no amount of subsequent art brushes care materials will recue it. However, if you do fall into this trap with your favorite brush, try this...
Clean the brush and draw it out into as straight or flat a profile as you can whilst it's damp. Dip it in some water-soluble office gum (or gum arabic if you happen to have it) and dry it gently with a hair dryer, from about 12 inches away, 'till it goes stiff.
Leave it for a few days and if you're lucky it will stay straight when you rinse it out to use it again. It may take a couple of goes, so do persevere.
If you haven't any gum, dip the damp brush in a thickish mix of watercolour (NEVER ACRYLIC!) paint, as this contains the same substances as gum arabic. Don't let any paint get up the inside of the ferrule. Follow the same procedure as above and rinse clear in a day or so.
Whatever you do, don't use PVA (or woodworking or similar) glue either for this. It's basically the same formula as acrylic paint and once this stuff dries on a brush head, its best use is as a stick you can throw for the dog to chase.
Once you've finished a painting session, rinse your art brushes in water (for watercolors or acrylics) or the turps or thinners you've just been using, for oils.
This will get most of the pigment off the bristles. Then use a suitable soap-type cleaner to get them really clean and free of lingering paint.
Concentrate especially around the ferrule. However, don't be too alarmed if your bristles or white nylon filaments are tinted to a colour you've been using...
This often happens, especially with colors like Alizarin
Crimson or Viridian. By their nature they are powerful,
staining colors. As long as the bristles are otherwise clean,
no harm will come to them and the stain shouldn't leak on to
your next painting. 
A good art
brushes care tip I've recently come across is, after washing
your art brushes, to rub a little fabric conditioner
into the bristles, which keeps them supple and prolongs
brush life. Don't forget to rinse out before your
next session though...
If nothing else, your next painting will smell nice!
A drop of baby oil is apparently good for brushes, though I'd limit this to any art brushes you keep exclusively for oil painting. With a watercolor brush or where your art brushes are used for both acrylic paints as well as oil paints, you'd be putting an oil residue in the fibers. Any water-based paint - and certainly watercolor paper - isn't going to like it one little bit next time you use it.
There
are many good proprietary cleaners and conditioners for art
brushes care available at art stores. But if nothing else is
handy, use a bar of soap to gently rub the bristles
in, and get a nice lather. Make sure this gets right to the
ferrule to swill out any paint. Rinse the brush thoroughly and
leave to dry flat. You can then stand it - bristle-end
up don't forget! in a suitable container in a cool,
dry location.
I wouldn't recommend regularly using washing up liquid or most household detergents as they can be a bit harsh on the filaments, especially the natural ones.
...Well, would you wash your hair repeatedly with washing up liquid ...?
Art Brushes Care - Storage of Your Art Brushes
If you're worried about damaging or getting dust on your valuable art brushes in between sessions (and you'd prefer not to store them bristle-up in a jar) a long plastic food storage box is an excellent solution.
As well as plastic boxes, the card tubes with metal bases and lids that hold some malt whisky bottles are ideal for most watercolor brushes.
Oil brushes, generally being a bit longer, may need something a bit bigger. Still, you can be sipping the malt while you find a container... Purely to aid your search of course!
In addition, try this...
Get a couple of elastic bands and a piece of stiff card or board a little narrower and shorter than your container but an inch or two longer than your longest brush.
Next, wrap the elastic bands around the card near the top and bottom. Push your brushes down the card and under the bands, handle-end first, so as not to damage the bristles.
Make sure the brush hairs are at least half an inch below the
top of the card and clear of the bands. Place the card into
your container and the brush heads are protected
even if the container is upended.
You can buy various sized clear plastic tubes in art stores for the same purpose, but I think they're fairly pricey for what they are.
Alternatively, if you're any good at sewing - and even if you're not, you can easily make a custom brush roll. One quick way is to buy one of those stiff, bamboo-type table-mats that roll up when not in use.
Place your art brushes in side by side. Roll up the mat with the brushes, quite tightly; secure with a couple of elastic bands and "Voila"... instant brush roll!
An even better way is to find a piece of old, cotton cloth, curtain or similar material. Cut out a piece of cloth about 18 inches wide and four to five inches longer than your longest brush.
Now get some half inch wide Velcro. Cut a piece of both faces about 18 inches long and stick one face across the 18 inch width, about two-thirds the way down. Either sew it on or use contact adhesive or PVA glue.
When the glue dries, place your brushes side by side about 1 inch apart at 90degrees to and on top of the Velcro strip. Then put the other Velcro piece on top, pressing it down and securing it to the bottom face in between the brush handles.
Fold the flaps of excess cloth over the top and bottom of your brushes, roll it up and there you go! The thickness of the rolled up velcro will be balanced by the bristle ends of the brushes. Secure the loose end of the roll by using a couple of stout elastic bands.
Make these sizes larger or smaller to suit your own requirements. Remember...
It takes only about twenty minutes to make... and you'll have
it for years!
So To Sum Up...
There are, of course, many other ways to protect your brushes and I've no doubt people have their own great tips...
Hopefully though, these notes will act as a reminder that like most things in life, art brushes care will repay a little TLC on your part, a thousand times over!
Enjoy Your Painting!
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